Catching up with "Travon Fifty"

Last winter, we met Anacostia’s Travon Smith, whose mythical (or perhaps true) 50-inch vertical leap, hearkened back to playground legends from decades ago. Yet, by the end of his senior season, in which he became the school’s career scoring leader and carried a 3.8 grade-point average, the 6-foot-3 Smith had no place to continue his basketball or academic career.

Well, he does now. Smith will take the court Sunday afternoon in the regular-season opener for
SUNY-Delhi, a community college in upstate New York. According to Anacostia Coach Frank Briscoe, Smith didn’t get a strong enough standardized test score to attract interest from Division I schools. Instead, Smith chose to play for Delhi, which went 19-13 last season in Division III of the National Junior College Athletic Association. It’s located about 50 miles east of Binghamton.

“He didn’t get the feeling he’d be able to get to a high-level program right now,” Briscoe said, “but he wasn’t disturbed by it. He’s going to one of the top [junior college] programs, and, in two years, he’ll transfer to a four-year school.”

According to Briscoe, in three scrimmages this month, Smith averaged 19 points and seven assists, as he played both backcourt positions. Due to Anacostia’s lack of frontcourt depth, Smith never played guard until his senior season, when it became apparent that that would be his position if he were to play in college.